Suite 850<br/>The view in JFK’s last hotel room

Approximately 12 hours before President John F. Kennedy was shot on Nov. 22, 1963, he and his wife, Jackie, were getting ready for bed in the Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth. “Suite Eight-Fifty… It’ll Be Famous,” ran a headline in the Fort Worth Press: In honor of the president’s visit, a small group of local art collectors had assembled 16 original pieces, by the likes of Picasso and Monet, and staged an installation inside the suite’s three rooms. Of course, the paintings and sculptures were overshadowed the next day by iconography of an altogether different kind: the president’s blue Lincoln convertible, Jackie’s blood-stained pink suit, Lyndon Johnson raising his right hand aboard Air Force One—images that have been reprinted and recirculated countless times this fall to mark the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. Now, in a new exhibit and book, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art has reassembled the artwork in suite 850, along with previously unreleased photographs of the original installation—in effect reconstructing the scene where America’s 35th president spent his last night, sleeping beneath a van Gogh oil.
Above: Kennedy steps outside the hotel on the morning of Nov. 22, after spending the night there with his wife.

AP Photo

Suite 850

After the Fort Worth Press reported that the first couple would be staying in only the second most expensive suite in the Hotel Texas (reportedly because it was safer since it had only one door), the newspaper’s art critic, Owen Day, enlisted two Texas art patrons, Sam Cantey III and Ruth Carter Johnson, to help spruce up the space, including the living room pictured here, with artwork from local museums and collections. (All photographs inside the suite were taken on Nov. 21 unless otherwise noted.)

Manhattan II, by Lyonel Feininger (1940)

Cantey, who was executive vice president of the Forth Worth Art Association, and Johnson, chair of the board of the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, chose the collection within a day, borrowing from the Amon Carter museum, the Fort Worth Art Association and five private collections. Manhattan II hung in the living room.

Study for Accent Grave, by Franz Kline (1954)

Cantey had catalogues of the works printed for the hotel room, and the pieces—including Study for Accent Grave in the living room—were installed on Thursday morning, Nov. 21. The Kennedy’s arrived shortly before midnight at the hotel, where they were greeted by a crowd of hundreds and had to wade their way through the packed lobby before heading upstairs to their suite, then ordering a pot of coffee and going to bed.

Angry Owl, by Pablo Picasso (1951-1953)

Picasso’s owl was a late addition to the exhibition, on loan from Ted Weiner, a wealthy oil and gas businessman. Ruth Carter Johnson (left) and Weiner's wife, Lucile, had to drive the owl to the hotel in Johnson’s station wagon. Johnson had not voted for Kennedy and didn’t share his political views, but she was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts.

Angry Owl, by Pablo Picasso (1951-1953)

The owl sculpture was installed just inside the suite’s entrance, beneath a portrait by Claude Monet of his granddaughter—a pairing meant to greet the Kennedys as they entered for the night. According to Ruth Carter Johnson, who spoke with the first couple the next day before they left the hotel, the Kennedys were so exhausted, they didn’t even notice the art that night. It was only the next morning that Jackie Kennedy saw one of Cantey’s catalogues in the suite.

Spirit Bird, by Morris Graves (c. 1956)

Although they considered featuring only Texas-based artists, the planning group scrapped the idea, keeping the first lady’s cosmopolitan taste in mind. “Because of Mrs. Kennedy’s appreciation of the arts, we thought it would be a special pleasure for her and the president to have an opportunity to see some choice items from Forth Worth collections,” Johnson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Spirit Bird, above, was also hung in the living room.

Three Points, by Henry Moore (1939-1940)

Each of the three rooms in the suite functioned as a mini installation, with painting and sculpture placement mapped out by Mitchell Wilder, the Amon Carter museum’s director. Three points was also in the living room.

A Girl from Lombardia, by Eros Pellini (1958-1959)

The sculpture above also came from the collection of Ted Weiner.

A Girl from Lombardia, by Eros Pellini (1958-1959)

It was placed on a coffee table in the living room, which was decorated in “Chinese modern” style with Dutch blue walls.

Bedroom

Of suite 850’s two bedrooms, the artwork in the smaller of the two was chosen with the president in mind. However, it was Jackie Kennedy who slept in the room, pictured above in a photo taken on Nov. 22. The president is said to have slept in the master bedroom, whose art—including van Gogh’s Road with Peasant Shouldering a Spade—had been chosen for the first lady.

Swimming, by Thomas Eakins (1885)

The room intended for the president featured four paintings by American artists, including Eakins’s depiction of nude swimmers—a painting that was well known in Texas art circles (and was part of the reason Eakins himself had been expelled from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1886).

Lost in a Snowstorm—We Are Friends, by Charles Marion Russell (1888)

Russell’s painting, which also hung in the bedroom intended for the president, depicts two white cowboys and five Blackfeet Indians during a snowstorm. The other paintings in the room were Sombrero with Gloves, by Marsden Hartley, and Geyser Pool, Yellowstone, by John Henry Twachtman.

Outside the Hotel Texas

After spending the night in the suite, the president awoke to rainy weather on Friday, Nov. 22. He got dressed in a blue-gray two-button suit, then entered his wife’s room to peer out the window into the parking lot, where a crowd had gathered. While the first lady remained in the suite, the president emerged from the hotel around 8:45 a.m.

Impromptu Speech

After brief remarks by Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy gave an impromptu address outside the hotel around 9 a.m., before the first lady joined him in the hotel’s ballroom for a breakfast and ceremony put on by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. The Kennedys then returned to their suite, where they phoned Ruth Carter Johnson to thank her for the art installation. Jackie Kennedy also spoke to Johnson, telling her that once she noticed the art, she wished she didn’t have to leave the suite so soon.

Dallas

After the short flight from Forth Worth, Air Force One landed at Love Field Airport in Dallas around 11:45 a.m. The Kennedys were joined by Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife, Nellie, and were greeted by Vice President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird. The motorcade then departed for a lunch at the Dallas Trade Mart, passing first, fatefully, through Dealey Plaza.
Correction: An earlier version of this gallery misstated the color of the car in which Kennedy was shot.